Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Sept.,  1891. 
Note  on  Sandal  Wood. 
451 
of  their  own  roots.  When  the  trees  have  attained  an  age  of  twenty 
to  thirty  years  they  are  cut  down,  and  the  trunks  are  freed  from 
white  wood  and  cut  into  small  billets,  which  are  sent  to  China  or 
Europe.  The  roots  are  cut  into  chips  and  distilled  on  the  spot  by 
a  very  primitive  process.  The  two  ports  of  exports  from  India  of 
sandal  wood  and  oil  are  Bombay  and  Mangalore. 
The  actual  quantity  of  sandal  wood  oil  exported  from  India  tends 
to  diminish.  It  is  a  strongly  colored  oil  and  always  adulterated, 
probably  with  castor-oil. 
Sandal  wood  is  also  met  with  in  the  Sandwich  Islands,  where  it  is 
yielded  by  Santalum  Freycinetianum,  and  in  the  Fiji  Islands,  where 
the  Santalum  Yasi  is  found. 
In  Australia  an  essential  oil  is  obtained  by  the  distillation  of 
Fusanus  spicatus  and  F.  acuminatus,  which  is  beginning  to  arrive  in 
the  European  markets,  but  which  is  less  odorous,  like-  the  wood 
from  which  it  is  obtained. 
Lastly,  there  is  received  from  Venezuela,  but  in  small  quantities, 
an  "oil  of  sandal  wood,"  known  as  West  Indian,  and  which  is  indi- 
cated in  the  price  currents  as  "  W.  I." 
The  best  oil  is,  without  doubt,  that  which  is  prepared  in  Europe, 
principally  in  France  and  England.  The  billets  are  reduced  to 
shavings  and  distilled  with  water  in  large  apparatus.  The  oil,  being 
mixed  in  the  wood  with  a  resinous  substance,  separates  with  diffi- 
culty and  distils  over  only  after  a  time,  when  it  is  collected  in  a 
series  of  Florentine  receivers,  where  it  separates  slowly  from  accom- 
panying water.  It  is  afterwards  clarified  by  paper  filtration.  In 
this  way  is  obtained  an  oleaginous  liquid,  having  a  density  of  about 
0-975  (the  B.P.  indicates  0-960  and  the  U.S.P.  0-945),  laevogyre, 
neutral  to  litmus,  soluble  in  alcohol,  ether,  and  chloroform,  and  nearly 
insoluble  in  water.  Exposed  to  the  air  oil  of  sandal  wood  oxidizes 
and  resinifies ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  gives  reactions  similar  to  oil  of 
turpentine  and  other  hydrocarbon  essential  oils. 
The  consumption  of  sandal  wood  oil  is  an  increasing  one,  and  its 
high  price  presents  naturally  a  temptation  for  fraud.  It  is  not  rare 
to  find  this  essential  oil  in  commerce  mixed  with  fixed  vegetable  or 
mineral  oils  of  far  inferior  commercial  value.  This  addition  is  easily 
detected,  for  these  fixed  oils  are  usually  lighter  than  essential  oil  of 
sandal  wood,  and  diminish  consequently  the  density  when  mixed. 
Further,  if  a  drop  of  suspected  oil  be  placed  on  a  piece  of  unsized 
